Unfit
by Venia Silente
Summary: A wild Mienfoo must practice his arts every day. They give him sustenance and survival. But when reaching a stall in his training and facing new threats he is not designed to overcome, where should this Mienfoo turn his sights to?


**Unfit**

by Venia Silente aka 'Solovino'

The morning goes by, like any other day, with the Mienfoo trudging against the sea winds. The grass is short and his fur doesn't really help but the creature is confident the spiders would not be awake this early and he would be able to gather his sustenance for the day without much issue.

The Mienfoo reaches for the first berry tree he has found available, his body in a relaxed posture while his ears and eyes stay alert to detect any movement from the creatures hosted there.

Reaching the first branches poses no problem thanks to a graceful, precise leap, landing as close to the trunk as he can, body softly arched to avoid the branch making much cracking noise.

It'll just take reaching to the higher branches…

This tine it is done via slow climbing. The Mienfoo's pelt dragged against the rough bark and his relatively short limbs make the task heavier than it should be, the Mienfoo ponders for a moment why his place is not with the birds, with their wings to move across the air and their beaks to steal and pry the breakfast open.

It takes a couple of minutes of careful climbing and balancing on the narrowest branches, but this morning, the Mienfoo has obtained his food: a yellow, oval-shaped berry that the bugs consume usually when the Rock-types approach from the caves to the north.

He holds it carefully in his muzzle while climbing down to the lowest branches, and once there holds it precariously in his paw while arranging for a leap down to the grass, confident that he has gone undetected. Yet as soon as his feet leave the tree he hears something pierce the air, and sees many poisonous stings adorn the ground right on the spot he's to land on.

The poor Mienfoo can not help but yell in pain and let his to-be-breakfast go as his feet and palm are pierced by the stings, he immediately feels the strength-draining effects on his body. He rolls away to safer grass and turns around to see a large, reddish spider creature hanging from the tree by a silk thread and descending on the fruit that has taken him so much effort to collect.

The Mienfoo attempts to fight back, dashing around the stings and leaping to kick the Ariados away, but the creature is largely unaffected by the attack and simply lets herself be pulled back by his thread, her legs aiming for the berry as the Mienfoo does. The two Pokémon engage in a brief battle over the berry, with the Ariados spinning around and trying to aim bites and slashes at the Mienfoo while the mustelid attempts to stun the bug with fast direct hits that lead him nowhere.

Remembering the birds and realizing the bug has an advantage while airborne, the Mienfoo attempts to leap and cut the silk thread; the effort for his tired, poisoned body is too much and he only barely manages to slash the thread with his claws. As the Ariados female lands so does he on top of her shell, and the opponent is quick to twist around and wreck his balance, causing him to fall over; once in the ground the Mienfoo sees the berry by the lid of his eye and makes a tired attempt to reach for it, but is cut by one of his own yells and by a sensation-drowning pain, it takes him a moment to realize his arm has been pinned down by one of the female's legs, dug so deep past his fur that the spider leg's purple meets his fur coat's purple.

The Mienfoo sees the Ariados's mandibles getting ready and with some effort manages to twist his own body and kick her in the face. It takes some more time and grunting from both sides for the Mienfoo to finally escape, tired and without his prize; he sees the Ariados fire a new thread to climb up the tree and, his body tired and injured, is left with no other choice than to run the way he came.

Well, at least it was not birds. Or an angry Shelgon.

But today he'll have to find healing and sustenance another way.

* * *

Soft punch, soft poke, step forwards, low kick, strong punch.

Training goes well when one has a partner for practice, the Mienfoo thinks as he tries to break through the defenses of the Machop in front of him; though while he can land his moves wherever he wants on his opponent's body they don't seem to do much more than a dull and momentary pain.

The elder instructor in these lands, a female Mienshao who was apparently trained by a human before, has told him he can't just strike anywhere – he must search for soft tissue, for appendage joints, for pressure points, depending on who and what is he facing. Thus some months later the Mienfoo departs to the eastern routes to learn how to strike the Pokémon of canine or rodent appearance living in the grasslands.

Soft slap, left jab, step for– ouch! A bite!

He finds himself in trouble facing them though – while he's fast, he needs to circle around their entire body and reach to their hind legs or their torso to deal damage, and their long bodies and particular strategies of howling and slapping with their tails during battle leave him usually too weakened to face multiple opponents in a row.

One summer day after getting enough humiliation from trying to imitate a Furfrou's strategy by attacking in all fours, the Mienfoo sees a Trainer camping nearby and one of their Pokémon, an Umbreon, sitting around. At first hesitant about approaching the human world, the Mienfoo tries to get advice from the Umbreon on how to fight and, while the night stalker is very reluctant to even acknowledge his presence, he eventually manages to charm him into giving advice by offering in exchange a green, bitter berry.

What does Mienfoo get from this exchange? Some strange advice: "To become faster and more agile, run wildly around the grasslands, yelling to the butterfly Pokémon to get their attention, then attack and catch them using your paws."

After getting thanks and a reverence from the Mienfoo, the Umbreon lets him go (thank Arceus!) and curls alone with his new berry, playing with it gently. Some minutes later the feline allows himself one last look at the direction the mustelid went to.

"Sucker", he remarks with a treacherous smile, then walks away holding the berry in his nuzzle.

Starting that day and for the rest of the season the Mienfoo would be known as "that lunatic Pokémon chasing Vivillon around". For as much as he does try, the winged bugs just fly out of his reach, and no matter the strength of his claws he his muscles become numb and weak from their dust as soon as he got a grip on them, if ever.

With the days becoming colder and the wings stronger, sure sign of the autumn coming, the Mienfoo tires out of it and decides that he needs another strategy. Someone who can dedicate a good time to instruct him, perhaps in exchange for some service.

Left slap, right slap, straight kick, force palm.

But where is the Pokémon going to get this advice?

He tries the forest, finding in a world of bugs no one who can mentor a Pokémon like him.

He tries the few caves around, finding the Pokémon living there have a natural dislike towards him.

He tries the river, finding himself unsuited for the lifestyle of underwater.

What he learns of all those places is that he needs to leave, to find a place where the style he is looking for is life. He has dreamt of that place before, as many of his kind have before, but like many of them roaming the mountains and grasslands he has not found it yet.

And, as all wild Pokémon know, there is only one good way to go beyond and truly roam the world.

Some days later The Mienfoo takes the first steps into the road leading to the human city. The dried leaves crack under his feet, the same his hesitation cracks under the alluring scents and sounds from the many people and Pokémon living there.

He doesn't look behind, but he doesn't forget the way he came from.

As long as he keeps his hard-earned lessons to heart and does not flinch or shy from having to start from scratch every once in a while, surely he will someday find a place to stay.


End file.
